Father we praise thee, now the night is over

Father we praise thee, now the night is over. Attributed (wrongly) to Gregory the Great* (ca.540-604), translated by Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936). This is a translation of the Latin hymn ‘Nocte surgentes vigilemus omnes’*, which was attributed to Pope Gregory the Great by Benedictine editors, ca. 1700. This is no longer accepted. As early as 1933 Percy Dearmer questioned it: ‘the mendacity of the old monastic writers, which so often baffles the historian, makes it impossible to be sure which, if any, hymns Gregory wrote; but this unrhymed hymn is doubtless of his time and may well be his work’ (Songs of Praise Discussed, 1933, p. 15). It is now thought to be of later date (see Latin hymns*)...

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